The popular singer Katy Perry is one step closer to buying a former Catholic convent in Los Angeles after an LA court sided with her in a legal dispute which has pitted the Archdiocese against its own nuns.
The ruling follows a two-year legal battle in which the nuns tried to block the Archdiocese from selling Perry their convent in favour of the real wealthy estate developer Dana Hollister, Fox News reported.
'The court finds that the sisters did not have authority to sell the property to Hollister,' said Judge Stephanie Bowick in a summary judgement.
Judge Bowick cancelled the sale to Hollister, opening the way for Perry to purchase the Los Feliz nunnery through her limited liability company, The Bird Nest LLC.
Perry, 32, first agreed to buy the large religious compound from the archdiocese for $14.5 million in 2015.
But two nuns from the Sisters of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary (IHM) moved swiftly to seal a deal with Hollister instead, according to court documents.
The judge ruled that in their rush, the nuns failed to get the necessary written approval for the sale from the Archdiocese as well as from the Pope.
'No consent was obtained before the close of the sale,' Judge Bowick wrote in the ruling. 'The above failures render the Hollister transaction invalid.'
The Archdiocese said in a statement this week: 'The main concern of the Archdiocese is and has always been the care and well-being of all the IHM Sisters.'
If Perry is successful in the purchase, she is likely eventually to move into the eight-acre property, which consists of multiple buildings including a church as well as a swimming pool and fountain.
The nuns have not lived on the property since 2011.
